


Doomed to Repeat History

by TheEruditeGrammacist



Series: Repeating History [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Concerned Mabel, Dipper listen to your sister, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-08-05
Packaged: 2018-04-13 04:58:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4508676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEruditeGrammacist/pseuds/TheEruditeGrammacist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”<br/>- George Santayana</p><p>Mabel and her twin brother Dipper used to be best friends. But when Stan's twin brother returns through the portal, Mabel begins to fear that Dipper is drifting away from her, just like Ford and Stan. But she doesn't realize quite <em>how</em> far until it's too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doomed to Repeat History

**Author's Note:**

> Of all the BillDip-related stories that I've read, I've noticed one thing that they all have in common: almost all of them are Billdip-centric. No matter the other ships present, if BillDip is there, it takes center stage nearly 99% of the time. I'm not saying that this is necessarily _always_ the case, but it is in every story I've ever seen. Which is not a bad thing, I love BillDip as much as the next person, but the revelation got me thinking: What is Mabel thinking during these types of stories? So this story will be from the view of Mabel and Pacifica, with BillDip on the side.
> 
> Side note: I have edited the format to a Oneshot collection. Until the events of the main story, all details will be given as a series of oneshots, followed by a multi-chapter main fic. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I am not Alex Hirsch, and as such, the beginning scene (minus Mabel's thoughts) was not written by me. It's the exact end scene from Tale of Two Stans, and I'm not trying to take credit for it. Also, I own no characters.

Mabel was sitting on her bed, worrying. Her long-lost great uncle had reappeared (Mabel hadn’t even known she had another grunkle!) and Dipper had finally fulfilled his summer mission: finding the Author of the Journals. Still, something nagged at her, causing her usually optimistic mind to stray into the realm of sadness, a place where she did not like to see it go. Still, she voiced her concern.

“Dipper, you don't think we'll turn out like Stan and Ford, do you?” she asked, glancing at her twin.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

Mabel fell back against her pillows, staring at the ceiling. “I mean, they used to be best friends, but then they got all stupid.” She rolled over, looking back at Dipper. “Can you promise me you won't get stupid?” she asked.

Dipper merely laughed it off. “Not stupider than you, dum-dum.” He said, giving Mabel a wide smile.

Mabel gave a forced, but convincing laugh. “Good night, stupid.” She said.

“Good night, stupid.” Dipper replied, reaching over and turning off the lantern. Mabel watched him as he quickly curled up and went to sleep, a small smile still on his face. As soon as his breathing evened out, she rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. She tried to distract herself from the worried thoughts, trying several things, from listening to Waddles cute little pig-snores, to watching Darrell, her favorite moldy spot on the ceiling, but nothing worked.

Despite what Dipper said to the contrary, she still worried. If Grunkles Stan and Ford had been such great friends when they were her age, but their friendship had been ruined by one simple little mistake, how easy would it be for something to come between her and Dipper?

Dipper had told her once, back on one of the many occasions in which he was reading a boring smart people book to her, something about “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” That phrase hadn’t really made much sense to her at the time, but after hearing the tale of the two Stans, she thought it was beginning to make sense. If she and Dipper were anything like Stanley and Stanford (And from what she had heard tonight, they were), then they would have to be extra-careful to make sure that they didn’t wind up acting as stupid as her grunkles.

Grunkle Stan’s words from earlier rang through her mind. “I tell ya, it's unnatural for siblings to get along as well as you do.” Mabel hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time, but now she was sure that he was talking about his relationship with his own brother.

Mabel looked back up at Darrell. “I swear,” she promised the moldy spot, “I won’t get all stupid. And I won’t let Dipper get all stupid either.”

She rolled over and was almost asleep, when she thought again of her grunkles. “And I’ll also get Stan and Ford to be friends again. I swear it on Darrell.”

And with the oath to keep her family together made, Mabel fell into a fitful sleep.

When she woke up the next morning, everything was almost as it had been all summer. Grunkle Stan continued to scam tourists, Grunkle Ford had taken up residence in the basement lab, and most importantly, Dipper and Mabel weren’t any less than best friends. There would be times when Mabel would think back to that night, and almost laugh at how silly she’d been, making an oath to keep her family together.

Almost laugh.

Almost. Because Mabel would still notice things, like when Dipper started to spend more and more time with Grunkle Ford, in the basement. How Stan would continue to expect Ford to thank him for rescuing him, and how Ford would adamantly say it was too risky and he shouldn’t have done it. And Mabel saw, every time the subject came up, Dipper and Ford exchange a look, as if Dipper knew something that he was keeping secret, a secret he was sharing with Ford. Mabel would tell herself that nothing was wrong, that the two smart people were just becoming good friends because they were smart. But years later, Mabel would remember when Dipper used to share those secrets with her, despite how much she didn’t understand them. And she would think about how she never really tried to understand, and she would regret never really taking him, or anything else, seriously. Because maybe if she had, she wouldn’t have broken her oath.

Maybe if she had, she wouldn’t have lost her brother.


End file.
